Week 18

April 28. Last Wednesday my PT discharged me. Had my insurance covered more visits than 30, I could probably have stayed a few more weeks, but the main hurdle had been cleared. I can lift my arm straight up, although with some muscle pain. I got some new stretching exercises to extend my range of motion, some of which I done by myself before: leaning on a wall with a raised arm as high as possible, and standing in a corner flexing the shoulders. He warned for tearing off my tendon by lifting the arm. After that session I had some tendon clicking noises after I lowered the arm from high elevation. Not only was it unpleasant to listen to, it also hurt a bit after a few times. Today though, my doc calmed me (as so many times before) and said that it would be unlikely that I would tear a tendon, it was just the biceps tendon slipping out and in of the grove of the humerus there was probably a hint of tendonitis as well, but nothing to worry about; just take ibuprofen. He thought my range of motion was quite good. The x-rays showed an increased level of bone mass along with a remodeling to make it straighter.

So he too discharged me. I felt a hint of sentimentality. I met interesting people at the hospital and learned about other priorities in life than work. 

Week 17

April 20. I just rediscovered these drawings by Leonardo, made some 500 years ago. They make sense now in explaining the vast number of exercises necessary for recovery.

My achilles heal, low to high diagonal exercise, is still impossible to perform on a cable column, but it's ok, but hard, with a four-pound weight. Strange.

But I tried to swim today, and it went quite well for some-50 meters. A few underutilized muscles had to work and there was a nice stretch. The hot tub afterwards was sensational.

Week 16

April 13. Time flies. Just when I thought I had muscle recovery under control, my PT introduced the Cable Column and one exercise in particular that was incredibly difficult: lifting the arm from down right diagonally up to the left. I simply couldn't do it even with only one pound resistence. So I'm back to the rubber bands at home as this exercises doesn't really need gym equipment, only diagonal resistance.

Except for that exercise, it was an easy day at the PT's. A pleasant surprise was performing the rows on the machine. It's easier to stand, rather than lying on my belly so the rows are much more effective.

As of last doc visit, the clinic has started to charge only what the insurance company is willing to pay, $35, instead if $65. That's very nice of them. Although I'm an easy patient--each visit takes less than five minutes with the doctor--that digital x-ray machine looks awfully expensive...

April 16. Today I went to the (real) gym for the first time since the accident. I certainly could have done it months ago, but now my home equipment started to show the limitations: a few weights, the rubber band, and a stationary bike. The Cable Column is simply a great tool, although i still couldn't perform the low right to high left exercise even without weight, but 40 pounds of rows was no problem (although I don't know if the actual weight is 40 pounds considering the leverage achieved by the pulleys). Another great machine was the elliptical trainer. The combined arm motion with the high heart rate made wonders.

April 17. It was a good and productive day at the PT's. I still couldn't do the diagonal low to high exercise, but everything else went and after "stretching" (it's rather bending) I was able to raise my arm to what felt like 180 degrees.

The weather was wonderful and I took a 30-minute bike ride, the forward leaning position of which felt like a nice stretch. My speed and cadence were similar to before the accident. But I don't I'll race soon, I'm too scared of falling.

There's one good thing coming out if this. I'm going to take more care of my upper-body strength.

Week 15

April 8. My PT increases the weights quite significantly (15 pounds in one-arm rows and eight pounds curls, for example), but I still can't lift my arm over my head. It's getting slightly annoying.

Last night I woke up sitting and having arm pain. I had a nightmare and got up using both arms. I'm glad this didn't happen two months ago.

April 10. It was supposed to be one of my regular measuring sessions with the gentle PT. He too knew some some torturous tricks: when stretching he didn't give in for my agony, but kept going. He increased my passive range from 130 degrees to 150 in five minutes, and laughed when I replied 9 to the question: "what was the pain like, 1-10"?). 10 was the day of the accident.

Then he increased the rows weight to 20 pounds, so in a week I went from 8 to 20. This had no direct impact on my range of motion standing up, which is still the achilles heal. But now I can easily reach above 110 degrees with straight arm standing and above 90 degrees with two pounds. The one pound weight is not in use any more, and the two-pound one, only while standing up. The rest is 4 pound minimum. Lying down on the side lifting the arm 90 degrees with the 4-pound weight is still very hard, but it's getting easier.

My doc has been right in everything he predicted several weeks in advance: the day of removing the sling, the removal of the brace, and the week when I would be able to lift my arm higher.